Camilla

House of Camelaw 1753 Roy sheet 17, 5 [showing ornamental gardens; where the ruins of Hallyards are, to the west of L<och> Camelaw]

Given the confusion even in the relatively late forms it is unclear to me what language this name derives from, let alone what it might mean.

OS Pathf. has ‘Camilla formerly Hallyards (remains of)’, with Hallyards marked as an antiquity. It also names the north-west edge of Auchtertool (village) ‘Camilla’. Stevenson states that shortly after Halyards passed to Lord Moray [in 1715 ibid. 57] the name changed to Camilla, one explanation given being that the change was made in honour of the earl’s countess, who bore this name. He adds that it was certainly so named in 1730, since a letter is dated in that year ‘at Camilla’, and that in 1742 the name is rendered Commielaw (1908, 65). OSA (p. 66) states that it was ‘so called after one of the Countesses of Moray, whose name was Campbell’. Millar rubbishes this suggestion, saying no such countess is named on any of the peerage accounts of the earls of Moray. He also states that the earls of Moray did not get possession of the estate of Hallyards until the 1780s, after the death of General Skene (1895 ii, 144).